My new book, out today

Today I’m releasing a new little book, called On Becoming an Individual (or HOW TO SAVE THE WORLD). It’s all original content, including photographs and mini-essays.

The theme is living a life on your own terms in a world that encourages you to be anything but a free individual.

It’s available free to Raptitude readers who subscribe by email. I’m changing email service providers this week (because the old standard, Feedburner, has been bought and basically abandoned by Google) and so old readers might notice a slight difference in format.

HOW TO GET IT:

If you already get Raptitude by email:

You will be receiving an email today with a link to download the book. (If you didn’t, please contact me.)

I’m also going to be publishing an occasional article that’s exclusive to email, which won’t appear on the blog. You’ll get all these.

When I release new books or other projects (including something awesome happening this Summer, to be announced soon) you’ll be the first to know.

If you don’t already get Raptitude by email:

Go here to get the download link sent to you. If you want the book but don’t want to receive articles by email then you can unsubscribe any time. I understand. But you will be missing exclusive articles that go out by email and don’t appear on the blog. Your address will never be shared. Over 10,000 readers already subscribe by email.

Whether you do or you don’t:

Because I’m changing to a new email provider, my emails might suddenly get misdirected into your spam filter. They’re all from “David at Raptitude.” Once you find it, click the “Not Spam” button, or add the address to your address book so that they don’t get lost.

Gmail users: It may appear in the “Promotions” tab. Just drag the email to the “Primary” tab, and click YES when it asks if you to do this with future messages from me.

That way it won’t get lumped in with unopened Oprah.com newsletters or whatever else is in there.

Hey everyone: Can you let me know what your experience of signing up and downloading the book was like? Did everything work okay for you? I’m using a new system and I want to make sure it’s running smoothly.

Downloaded perfectly in under a minute — remarkable given all the (beautiful) pictures and our lousy bandwidth out here in the UK Somerset Levels. Since I have dropbox, it offered me that as a cubbyhole for the download. hugs, cheers, and thanks to my favorite young guru.
celia

The difference between RSS and email from the blogger’s perspective is that RSS makes the connection between the reader and the blog depend on certain platforms remaining in place and remaining fashionable. Tons of blogs lost a lot of readers last year because Google Reader shut down, and Feedburner has become unstable. It’s a real nightmare for people who have spent years building a following, only to lose a big portion of it because of some technical change they can’t control. An email list will always be relevant and would survive the shutdown of any particular service.

You are absolutely welcome to continue to follow Raptitude via RSS, and if you want the book but do not want to continue to be an email subscriber I totally understand.

I don’t know much about .epub format, but from what I know this book would not be readable on any kind of e-reader because it’s so heavy on the photographs. I will look into different options for future releases.

Congratulations on the new book; I’m eager to read it! I subscribed about 15 minutes ago and the confirmation e-mail hasn’t shown up in my Gmail yet, including spam and promotions. It might just be slow.

I’m in Portland and I hadn’t heard about the World Domination Summit. I was really hoping it’d be about revolution but checking out the website, it looks like one of those rah-rah-money-rah-rah self-help flimflams. I’m surprised you are interested and willing to pay $500. What’s up with that?

The guy who runs it is a well-known and well-liked blogger named Chris Guillebeau. WDS has become a sort of a mecca for bloggers and web entrepreneurs. A ton of people I know have gone and recommended it, and there will be a lot of bloggers there whom I’ve wanted to meet in person for a long time.

Hi David, I got the email about the book but have not seen the download link email come in. I’ve been a subscriber to Raptitude for a few years now. Should I sign up again? Looking forward to reading the book! Thanks for gifting it to us!

Heya – looking to grab me a sweet, sweet copy o’ this, but haven’t been sent a confirmation email. I can’t re-signup cos it’s all like “you’ve already done this”. And it’s very generous of you to put something like this out for free. Thanks, man.

I’m enjoying your book! Note that there’s a typo on pg 15, 2nd paragraph from the bottom: “chances are you are live in…”. Thank you for sharing this work with us at no cost. Powerful stuff despite an imperfection!

Got the email swiftly, downloaded the book and read it immediately. Very well done! Helped me revisit the old topic of “what do I want to do with my life” stuff, always a treat for self-help fans ;) I liked the existential perspective you brought, and found it quite novel to look at mother nature as an outside force with its own bias on par with big business, never thought of it that way. I also really enjoyed the notion of the “living edge” and the coral similie. Sorry if I’m annoying, but I noticed two minor typos: “you are live in” and “unspeakable, It is”. Again, it was a great read, thanks for this!

David
Wow – Read it and loved it. I want the audio now : ) I may read it aloud and record it so I can be intimately familiar with the clear thinking presented.
To name Mother Nature and Mother Culture as the 2 forces actively influencing me has given me clarity to see the competition to the most important thing – well being. The compass within so simple and true.
Your images were also so poetic and danced with the words on each page.
Well done and thank you. I now have a lovely gift to share with others.

a great read David (not to mention delight for the peepers), really well done…congrats…. I like your points on the importance of actually taking action and not falling into the trap of the self help junkie!

Ok, after speaking with the email provider, I found out that my account had been throttled back because there were too many requests at once. So they delayed sending the confirmation email to many people until about an hour ago. I hope everyone has gotten it by now! Thanks so much for your patience and you can always contact me with any questions.

This comes at a great time for me. I’ve been reading through your old posts lately as I realised that in order to be the parent I want to be for my daughter I first need to work on myself some more. Be more patient, mindful, aware of my feelings and needs to be able to answer to her needs. I’ve been reading your blog for a while now, and found it all great, but more in theory. Now I have to put it in practice. Thanks for showing me that it is possible and how to do it!

Finally!! Looking forward to it! Congratulations David. You have encouraged me to finish up my Own Book! Everything worked well and I was able to download the book perfectly! Talk of the internet shattering the boundaries of geography!

A book to be felt, not merely read,
a book about Being, not merely living,
a book about realizing, not merely understanding,
a book about communicating, not merely exchanging information,
a book about appreciating, not merely liking,
a book about desiring, not merely wanting,
a book about seeing, not merely looking,
a book that whispers the seeds of what needs to be
growing inside us all at every day break,
demanding to endlessly flourish till weariness temporarily
takes it toll,
a book that does a world of good to whoever
is settling for nothing less than constant inspiration
and exploration within,
a book we should all be able to recite in our own words,
as it is based on fundamental truths familiar to us all,
at least subconsciously,
a book about how obviously the obvious is omitted from our lives
at whatever cost,
a book about the difference between good and best,
labour and work, being taken for a ride and taking a ride…
a book worth experiencing and to whose author I’d like to devote one of my poems to…

Life is no vacation,
it’s realization,
the self’s ultimate
demonstration…
Learn, love, share,
beware, care,
worry,
but never be sorry,
if you are giving it all you’ve got
and you’re not acting like the person you are not…

Easy download. Great content. You, sir, are a great writer AND a gifted photographer. I love your stuff and look forward to each post. Consider me a fan and a friend. If you ever need a landing pad in Michigan – let me know.

Just saw that you are going to the World Domination Summit this year. I’m suddenly even more excited that I am going! – all the way from Denmark. I really hope to get a change to talk to you, David, I greatly admire your work :-)

Thank you for the book, it was good and I enjoyed reading it. Much of it was good and actionable. Being more fully conscious of the decisions you make and the power the outside world has on your default desires are good. Rejecting comfort is good and clear. The call to action is a nice touch.

I have two pieces of constructive feedback:
* I read it on my phone, and the text was very small. I had to zoom way in and pan around a lot. It was annoying.
* Page 2 felt almost insulting. The claim that “most of our moral and cultural progress” are a result of a certain group that you are able to define, and that they are “freer and better at being happy” doesn’t come across as inspiring to me. And the claim that “these people … will save the human world” just sounds presumptuous and naive. The human world’s biggest problems aren’t corporate culture or consumerism (though those are problems for some of us), but war and poverty and global climate change.

The pages of the book are 1200×800, and because of its graphic presentation it’s really not meant to be read on a phone.

I’m sorry that you were offended by page 2. I might take a different tone if I were to write it again, but I think it is true. Not everything will be inspiring to everybody. I think the relationship between climate change, global poverty and the status quo of western consumerism are pretty obvious. Many or most wars are caused by economic conditions (civil war, WW2 as examples) which relate directly to whether it’s normal to inherit our values from the status quo, or to look for them ourselves.

I think a growing culture of deviation from inherited norms is the ONLY thing that can possibly prevent serious environmental and economic catastrophes from happening in the next few decades. Different policies under the same general philosophy will not do it. It has to be a culture of individual self-examination. This is the underlying theme of the book, and I really do think it is the most important issue in the world.

David, Thanks a Tonne! It was a great read. Loved and consumed each word. Great writing as always. I am sitting miles across the ocean from where you live, sit, think and write…but the impact your words create in my life is …..tremendous!!!. If someday I come to US…I think thats where you currently reside…I am sure I will try my best meeting you! Have a good life. Keep writing..keep writing..keep writing. :)

Not so fast on the ‘do something with this’ part. Inspiration and insight are enough, if you’ve decided your mission in life is simply to be an awed witness to the glory of the universe. To the wonders of nature, of humanity, … of every moment of clarity, every pulsation of sanity and compassion and creativity, every humble triumph over adversity. If all you want to do is celebrate this and sing your celebration to the rooftops, every inspiration is one more gift. To share. All I do is share it, David. Every sweet thing.

Have you ever been in the company of Grace?
When the path unfurling before you,
the experience assaulting you,
the epiphany embracing you,
the sheer intensity magnitude excitement of it
hurricanes your interior?

And beyond the awe that drops your jaw
comes a forever set to your shoulders,
an everywhere glint to your eyes…
as they attune to solid path?

And caressingly
from your micro-cellular seas – tossing to vast rhythms
issues a hum, a vibe, a formidable granite peace.

While Grace whispers
truly home, truly free;
nothing to fix, nothing to flee;
where you were always meant to be…
as she parts the mists of millennium
so you can see?

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